SÃO PAULO (Scrap Register): In the midst of the deepest global and regional economic crisis in history, the Latin American steel industry has been registering its negative effects. In various countries, companies have had to reduce or stop their production while other industries adapted to a new reality, Latin American steel association Alacero said.

In February, the apparent consumption of the region experienced a 2.5% reduction compared to the same month last year, in addition to a cumulative drop of 2%. In relation to January, the decrease was 7%. Argentina and Mexico are among the most affected countries.

With this, our projection for the apparent consumption of steel so far is a decrease of 13.8%, about 8 million tons less, down to a total of 55.4 million tons, according to the information received from each country so far.

Raw steel production fell 8% in the first quarter, while rolled products decreased 3% in the period. The more serious effects of the pandemic began to be seen in Argentina in March with a reduction of 27% compared to the same month last year. The fall in March corresponds to a third of the month, due to the quarantine in place since March 20. Exports, meanwhile, continue to reflect the weak world steel demand: they fell 15% in the first two months of the year.